Not Your Average Jodi: Mrs. Mink Calls into The Big Show, Says They "Have No Intention of Selling the Ball"

"It’s amazing that
we’ve had it for three months, we’ve told lots of other media sources that have
asked ‘where’s the ball?’ we told them we had it authenticated, we told them
it’s with us in Miami, no one’s ever said anything, no one from the Red Sox has
ever said ‘we’re glad you kept that ball’ nothing… I had to just drive home with
it, I drove home from Boston and I was scared to death because I had it in the
car. As we got back I put it in the same safety deposit box that we have the
Olympic medal in and the irony is Doug can’t even get into that box because it’s
registered under my name and his mother’s name, so you can’t even really blame
Doug, blame me. He (Lucchino) has to go through me.

"He had it in the
clubhouse (after the game) and I asked him, I said ‘do you still have the ball?’
and he said ‘yeah’ and I said ‘let me put it in my purse so it doesn’t get lost
in here because I don’t know if any of you guys were in there, there was a lot
of media in there, and it was chaotic when they won. I just kept it in my purse.
And the next day MLB actually approached Doug and said ‘if you want to
authenticate it, we’ve got people here and we’ll register it to you, and it will
be registered under your name and everything, so he went ahead and did it.

"We do not have
any intention of selling this ball. We’ve actually had people who have asked to
buy it and we’ve said no to them. They went through our agent. There was one
offer that was very, very low and I think the highest offer was $25,000 maybe I
believe. No one has ever asked us to put it anywhere... I don’t understand the
timing of it at all, we’ve had it for three months, I would have thought
somebody would have contacted us right afterwards, he had it authenticated at
Fenway, it’s not like they didn’t know he had the ball, but nobody had said
anything and then Shaughnessy called actually to talk about the whole Kevin
Millar trade thing, and Doug didn’t want to comment on that so they just started
talking about the ball.

"It’s sad that
everybody’s dealing with this, and this is this national issue today when the
Red Sox could have just come and said we have this museum, or we’d like to do
this with it, and do we have your permission, you could still retain ownership.
I mean it would have been ‘yes, yes’ here it is. The ball would have already
been there probably by now… but that’s not the way things unfolded.

"It’s not any
question of the ownership. If MLB says that we own it, and it was registered
under Doug’s name, I was standing right there, then yeah, we do own it, but that
doesn’t mean we don’t want everybody else to experience it.

"If this is the
way that the writer portrayed it to the media, I can only imagine when he called
them to get their quotes, the way he said that Doug said it, you know what I
mean, I don’t know how that transpired, I don’t know what their conversation
was, I can only imagine he called up and said ‘hey, you’ve go this player who
says it’s his ball and he’s gonna sell it and send his child, who he doesn’t
even have, to Florida State… I don’t think it will affect how he plays, it might
affect how some people perceive him and that’s just gonna be whether you believe
some of the stuff that you read in the paper today, or you believe the truth.

"I told Doug I
said ‘now that this has become funny with the ball, maybe the ball will be my
little Nelson and I’ll just take it to the park and take pictures, $10 to take
Polaroid pictures…”

(After
listening to Jodi, when she's not posting online or emailing about this, has
anyone ever seen her and WEEI quasi-celeb-caller Allison-in-Cambridge in the
same room together? She's making Brenda Warner look like a wallflower.)

"I just didn't realize how one writer could infuse a load of bull onto a nation. We have all kinds of media from around the country calling to say -- "Will you give the ball back?" Is there nothing else newsworthy right now?"-- Jodi Mientkiewicz on RedSox.com message boards

Minky Says He Was Sandbagged by Shaughnessy, Says Lucchino Has His Number, Maintains Claim Ball is His

"I should never have called him back, and I did and I didn’t want to... First of all he (Foulke) wasn’t going to throw it to me, I’m yelling at him, ‘throw me the ball!’ I want to be on Sports Illustrated too. He threw me the ball and I held on to it. I held onto the one when we won against the Yankees too. Derek had pitched such a good game, he’s gotta have that ball. I gave it to him after all that he had been through, and I was going to give him this one, and I thought, “this is crazy, I’m a baseball buff, it’s something I want to hang on to.”

“The funny thing about all this, all this came up now. I’ve been telling everybody since the minute we won that I had it. No one has contacted me, no one has said two words to me about this ball.

“The whole thing about me wanting to sell it, I was saying it laughing. The other guy (Shaughnessy), he was laughing. I thought it was going to be a light-hearted article, I was just joking around with him and kidding about it and the whole thing about I can be bought, it was all in jest, it was one of those things. I’ve tried to keep my mouth shut all winter, but when someone backs me into a corner that way, I’m going to come out fighting. If someone portrays me as as someone I’m not, I’m going to have a problem with that. Red Sox fans have not had a chance to know me, to know my personality. The last thing I am is money crazy but I’m also not going to give the thing away either. Not in the near future (does he have plans to sell the baseball)… I would like to keep it. I’ll be more than happy to loan it out, that’s part of baseball history. That’s why I had it authenticated…” -- Doug Mientkiewicz with WEEI's Dale and Neumy

"well i might find that i regret posting this but i used to post frequently on the twins board and found most of them to be respectful and intelligent baseball fans. from what i have read here over the last 6 months, i find the same to be true here so i will at least impart the truth of this story. yes doug does have the ball and yes we did authenticate it after the series. thank god we did or any person off the street could claim they had the ball. we have told numerous sources since the series ended that we have the ball and not until this article have we been approached by anyone with the red sox to return it to them for a museum. furthermore, the first we heard of that was through the media and not through a personal conversation with anyone with the red sox. doug and i have no intention of selling the ball for profit. doug did say he could be bought, joking and laughing the whole time. he also said how much he knows the value of this ball and what it means to red sox nation. so before everyone goes crazy, know this, we have always had the ball, we have told other media sources we have it and they have never pitted us against the ownership. there must be some agenda here that i am unaware of but i am sure doug and the team can resolve everything and all will be happy in the end.

"honestly - until this morning- we had not even talked about it. so to be completely forthcoming, i don't know where it will go first. i am sure it will end up there. like i have said- we have not even talked to the management to find out what they would like to do. one thing we know - it should not sit in a safety deposit box. we need to discuss with the red sox where it should go, whether it be to a museum, or the Hall or on a tour. this should have been a conversation we had privately but i guess it gives people something to get fired up about when exposed to the public. based on the way the media operates up there- you guys will probably know before i do as to what happens.

"you're welcome. the irony is he called doug to talk about the kevin/doug situation going on and doug did not want to comment about anything until theo made a decision so they started talking casually about the ball and the world series.

"trust me - we are no strangers to slanted journalism but i think he is going to wait til after he speaks with ownership privately before he comments publically. the one thing this shouldn't become is doug gets traded cause he didn't give the ball back or kevin gets traded cause doug did give the ball back. it should have nothing to do with management's decision. they are both great players and we should probably let this simmer down for a bit."

"this is definitely learning the hard way not to say anything in jest. When a writer calls wanting to get info on the kevin/doug debate - gets nothing from doug - then goes on to ask him what he did with the ball -when we have already told everyone. And then prints doug's lighthearted comments about being able to be bought as some statement of "ill take the highest bidder". bottom line if doug wanted to sell the ball - it would have been sold. if the red sox wanted the ball from doug - they should have asked him for it. i just had some reporter show up at my door 15 minutes ago to talk to doug. this is so exaggerated, it's ridiculous. yes ulimately doug did answer the writer's questions in a playfull manner. but if the red sox wanted this ball so badly to put in a museum, why did they wait 3 months til the week when a deicision is going to be made about trading doug or kevin to discuss it - and not with doug- but with the media? i don't know why all of this is being brought up now but i'm sure we will all find out.

"trust me we have heard far worse than this before- but i just didn't realize how one writer could infuse a load of bull onto a nation. we have all kinds of media from around the country calling to say - will you give the ball back? is there nothing else newsworthy right now? it will probably start a whole series on "where are they now" - all the last outs of the all the world series balls. and if the red sox don't go to the WS it will be the curse of doug mientkiewicz and then if he gives the ball back and we don't go to the WS it will be the curse of the ownership taking the ball back, etc. now we have reporters taking pictures of our house so i am sure you will all see our house by tomorrow."
-- Jodi Mientkiewicz, RedSox.com message board

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